


how light carries on endlessly (even after death)

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: infinite as the universe we hold inside [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Episode: s06e07 A Good Man Goes to War, Episode: s07e06 The Snowmen, F/M, Immortal Clara, Immortal Ianto, Immortals, Lesbian Clara, Lesbian Jenny (The Doctor's Daughter), M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Plot Twists, Post-Canon, alternate explanation for Clara, but this is doctor who we're talking about so that should be expected, for torchwood that is, god i had fun with this one, immortal rose, playing hard and fast with canon, time-traveling immortal lesbians save the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-16 19:36:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19324717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: Rose recognizes everyone at Demon’s Run save one: a girl, just familiar enough not to seem out of place, with a timeline that stretches leaps and bounds beyond what she can measure with a simple, distracted glance. She is dressed plainly, in a blue-and-green plaid dress, with black tights and brown leather pumps- not exactly the kind of outfit you wear to go to war.“My name’s Clara Oswald,” the girl says with a smile, “Took the last name after I married my wife, and as for the first, well...spoilers.”“You must be friends with River,” Jack says with a grin, and Clara looks at him for just a second before nodding."We've picked up a few tricks from each other over the years," Clara admits. "But to answer your question- I'm from your future, and I'm here to help."-A girl named Jenny meets a girl named Clara in the ruins of a solar system. They both have manic grins on their lips and timelines rushing under their skin, a million lives lived and dozens of planets saved.Together they save a couple more planets, rescue a few civilizations, defeat a few nasty dictators, before Clara takes Jenny’s hand and offers to use her vortex manipulator to go save different time periods.





	how light carries on endlessly (even after death)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JulietRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JulietRose/gifts), [MiladyDragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiladyDragon/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Mad, Beautiful, Fantastic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12720270) by [JulietRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JulietRose/pseuds/JulietRose). 



> Title is from "Saturn" by Sleeping At Last.
> 
> This fic really needs the fic before it read to be understood, but the basic premise is that Bad Wolf made both Ianto and Rose immortal as well as Jack. Rose still got stuck in the alternate universe with the metacrisis doctor (who called himself John Smith), who she married and lived with until he died, but then she found her way back into this universe, where she started travelling with the Doctor right after the Pandorica. As for Ianto, his immortality was only discovered when he survived the Thames House and the 456. He and Jack, in turn, decided to protect the human race by living linearly (i.e. not using time travel) along with humanity as it grew and expanded out into the stars.
> 
> And then you get this story, which is about immortality and time travel but a very different aspect of it.

_With golden string_

_Our universe was brought to life_

_That we may fall in love_

_Every time we open up our eyes_

_I guess space, and time_

_Takes violent things, angry things_

_And makes them kind_

**-Sleeping At Last, _Sun_**

 

Rose recognizes everyone at Demon’s Run save one: a girl, just familiar enough not to seem out of place, with a timeline that stretches leaps and bounds beyond what she can measure with a simple, distracted glance. She is dressed plainly, in a blue-and-green plaid dress, with black tights and brown leather pumps- not exactly the kind of outfit you wear to go to war.

“My name’s Clara Oswald,” the brunette girl says with a smile, “Took the last name after I married my wife, and as for the first, well...spoilers.”

“You must be friends with River,” Jack says with a grin, and Clara looks at him for just a second, eyes going a bit fond, before nodding.

"We've picked up a few tricks from each other over the years," Clara admits. "But to answer your question- I'm from your future, yes, but I'm here to help an old friend save another old friend."

"She can work with us," Jack offers, gesturing to him and Ianto, who were collected from a couple of galaxies over by the Doctor, three days ago. "We left Bess and Jackie, our usual backup, at home when the Doctor so rudely materialized around us without question, and we're used to working in at least sets of three."

Clara grins, a gleam lighting up her eyes. "Sounds good to me."

Ianto pulls his backup gun from his ankle holster. "Need one?" he asks the seemingly unarmed woman, holding it out by the handle, and Clara shakes her head, a certain smugness in her eyes that reminds the Doctor very much of Ianto's husband. She opens up the side pocket of her dress and pulls out two blasters.

"Pocket dimension," she says when the assembled friends of the Doctor and Rose just stare at her. "Someone helped me engineer it a few years back."

"Quire the handiwork," The Doctor says, and she nods at him.

"Quite," she affirms, then turns back to Jack and Ianto. "Let's get going. Can't take all day to knock out the army."

"Oh, it won't take us that long," Jack says, and Ianto nods.

-

During the battle, Clara goes in with blasters fit to rival River’s dual blasters, Ianto's handheld blaster, or Jack’s favorite big lazer gun, taking out plenty of Headless Monks and Soldiers of Silence.

“Where the bloody hell did you pick those skills up?” Ianto asks, gaze admiring as they all blast their way through the armies holding Amy Pond captive, and Clara grins.

“Learned from the best,” she says.

“And who would that be?” Ianto asks.

Clara winks. “You’ll just have to wait to find out. Time travel and all that, you know."

Ianto nearly sighs. Bloody time travelers. When he and Jack decided to live their lives linearly, proceeding with the universe, they knew they would be getting themselves into time travelers popping in and out of their lives out of sequence. Ianto just hadn't thought that there would be so _fucking_ many of them. "Oh, I _know_ ," he says as he shoots yet another headless monk. "Too bloody well, that is."

He catches Clara's grin out of the corner of her eye, so familiar yet so strange at the same time. "You always say that," she says, and there's not enough time to question that, but he is going to file it away for later.

In the meantime, though, he just takes care of guarding Clara and Jack's backs and taking out the army. Ianto always  _was_ a good marksman.

-

At the end of the day, after they’ve rescued Amy, after they've found out who River’s parents are, Ianto pulls Clara aside while the Doctor, Rose, and River deal with the Ponds.

“We’ve met before, haven’t we?” he asks, voice quiet, and for the first time Clara's mischievous grin drops, replaced by a rather peculiar, almost familiar expression as she stares at him.

"What do you think?"

"I think we have," Ianto says, "Or, well,  _you_ have. And Jack and I will meet you sometime in the future."

Clara gives him a proud smile and flashes her wrist quickly, just long enough to show Ianto the screen of her vortex manipulator, and the Archivist (as he’s known on a thousand planets) knows exactly where that vortex manipulator came from. “You will, someday,” she says, “But the specifics, well-”

Ianto grins. “Spoilers,” he says with a nod, and she grins.

“Clever man,” she says, and there’s something almost proud in her voice. "We really should have coffee sometime, catch up on everything."

"How would that help if you already know everything?" Ianto points out.

"Oh, I don't know everything," Clara says with a shrug, "Just most things. And the coffee offer still stands. You and Jack and I always have the best conversations." She gives him a small, mock-salute. "'Til next time, Archivist." Then Clara hits a button on the side of her manipulator, teleporting out of the base.

“Did you learn anything about her?” Jack asks after Clara winks away, and Ianto turns to his husband. “Someday,” he says, “You’re going to give her your vortex manipulator.”

Jack raises an eyebrow. “You mean the one that hasn’t worked in three thousand years?”

Ianto nods. “Yeah, that one. That’s what she’s using to travel around."

Jack grins. "Then it looks like we've got a new project on hand."

Ianto raises an eyebrow at his husband. "I thought we were planning on opening a coffee shop," he points out, "You've been promising me that for a couple of centuries now."

"Well, we've now got to figure out the vortex manipulator," Jack points out. "The coffee shop can wait a few more centuries, right?"

The other friends of the Doctor and Rose have other ideas, though. "Get your husband his coffee shop, Captain," Madame Vastra instructs, "'Tis only proper to give grand gifts to the person you love most."

Ianto nods at her. "Thank you, ma'am," he says, and she winks.

"My dear wife has taught me a good deal," she says.

"Well, then," Jack says with a shrug, "I guess we'll start a coffee shop, as soon as Jack drops us back off at Bess and Jackie's."

Ianto leans in and gives Jack a peck on the cheek. "That's what I'm talking about,  _cariad_."

* * *

The Doctor and Rose meet Clara for the second time in Victorian London, when she’s a governess who knows a bit too much about time travel and the TARDIS, but who doesn’t seem to notice the reference to Demon's Run so she has to be from a point before that in her timeline. They run around a bit, saving the world and running from the Snowmen, and eventually end up at the TARDIS.

“Welcome to the TARDIS!” the Doctor shouts, spinning around in that overly-excited way that this regeneration does, and Rose grins at her husband's enthusiasm. He's so much more scatter-brained and easily excited than either of her original doctors, but then again, all of them carried that manic energy and drive. It's not that strange, honestly.

But instead of saying something like _it’s bigger on the inside_ , Clara just smiles as she focuses on a singular circle on the wall, around the far end of the console near the ground. “Oh, it’s good to be back,” she says, and the Doctor’s eyebrows shoot to his scalp. Rose, however, with the TARDIS humming in the back of her skull like it always does when she’s within its walls, just smiles.

“You’ve been here before?” The Doctor asks, and Clara nods.

“A very long time ago for me,” she says, “And quite a bit in the future for you.”

“Spoilers,” Rose says, quoting their good old friend River, and Clara nods.

“But in the meantime…” Clara says, “We have some snowmen to destroy. What can we do?”

“Take-charge kind of girl,” The Doctor says, “Sure you’re not Scottish?”

Rose snorts, looking quite inelegant for a woman in such a beautiful navy blue gown and coat. “Not every girl who’s headstrong is Scottish just because Amy is,” Rose says, “After all, I wasn’t.”

“More of them are probably Welsh,” Clara says with a knowing smile, “Or maybe even American.”

“I think I’m going to like her,” Rose says, and Clara smirks.

“Oh, I know you will.”

-

Clara dies on Christmas day, surrounded by the children she helped raise, their father, a lizard woman from the dawn of time and her wife, and a Sontaran.

The Doctor and Rose have disappear to fully take care of the Nestene Consciousness, and when they return, well-

Clara’s body has disappeared. None of the family knows where it went, only that Clara had two last words before she went-

“Run, you clever couple, and always remember to call your daughter.”

* * *

A girl named Jenny meets a girl named Clara in the ruins of a solar system. They both have manic grins on their lips and timelines rushing under their skin, a million lives lived and dozens of planets saved.

Together they save a couple more planets, rescue a few civilizations, defeat a few nasty dictators and one crew of Slitheen, before Clara takes Jenny’s hand and offers to use her vortex manipulator to go save different time periods.

“You got a last name, Clara?” Jenny asks when they’re in their fifth time period, hovering somewhere in the Flavorian Galaxy on the verge of its Bronze Age. They've paused in their adventures for a quick bite to eat, as despite their respective...enhanced anatomies, no one likes the discomfort of starvation.

"I'll tell you mine if you'll tell me yours," Clara says, and Jenny grins.

"You're quite the clever girl, aren't you," Jenny says, and Clara smirks.

"I learned from the best," she says.

"Well, I wasn't quite born with one, but I picked up the name Oswald from a girl on the first planet I saved. It was their people's word for "Doctor," and, well, I kept the name for personal reasons." She raises a challenging eyebrow at Clara. "What about you?"

"Well, that's easy," Clara says, taking a sip of the coffee that isn't near as good as the stuff she's used to, back home. "What do you know about earth?"

-

They kiss after they save their twentieth planet, basking in the warm orange glow of its twin suns. “Now _that’s_ what I’m talking about,” Jenny says with an effervescent grin.

"Nothing more of a turn-on than saving lives," Clara agrees. "And now, for a proper date, right?"

"Where to?" Jenny asks, "Or more accurately, _when_ to?"

“Want to go get some tea?” Clara asks with a smile, flashing her vortex manipulator. “I know a great coffee shop in 55th century Wales, run by this really nice pair of blokes with unfortunate fashion sense.”

“No saving any planets?” Jenny asks, and Clara shrugs, smile growing mischievous.

“Maybe a couple along the way.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Jenny says with a grin, leaning in to give Clara a peck on the cheek.

- 

Clara lands them in front of the doors of a near-empty coffee shop five minutes from close. Clara opens the door, Jenny following right behind her, and enters the shop.

“Tad!” she shouts, “Pa! I’ve brought a girl I want you to meet!”

“Finally!” shouts a Welsh accent, still clear after two millennia. A man in a button-up, slacks, and an apron tied around his waist walks out. He has Clara’s dark hair, reasonable air, and her smile. “Your dad and I were wondering when we’d finally get to meet your wife.”

“Wife?” Jenny asks with a grin and a raised eyebrow, and Clara entangles their fingers as she rolls her eyes.

“Spoilers, Tad!” she scolds him, and he shrugs.

“All in good time, I guess,” he says, then raps on the front counter, a quick message in Boeshane code for her other father.

Said other father appears within seconds, favorite coat abandoned in the office of the coffee shop, thus showing off his braces and button-up. He has Clara's jawline, nose, and easy confidence.

“You’ll listen to him call for you, but not me?” Clara pouts, and her Pa fixes her with a look.

“When you’ve been married for four thousand years, your spouse tends to take a little precedence.”

“Over your daughter you only see once every decade or so?”

“That’s nearly constant,” Pa says, gaze examining Jenny. “You don’t seem fazed by the four thousand years comment. Has Clara told you what we are?”

“Oh, I’d have to travel with Clara for at least another couple of decades before she told me anything concrete about her dads,” Jenny says with a gleam in her eyes, and Clara snorts. She knows she talks plenty about her dads, but she didn’t reveal that small detail of their immortality. She didn’t have to, not when-

Jenny sticks out her free hand, the one not currently holding Clara’s. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Harkness-Jones,” she says, using the last name Clara gave her a little while ago. “I’m Jenny. I believe you both have met my father.” She glances at Clara. “Or is it mother, now?”

“Not yet,” Clara answers, and Jenny nods.

“Alright, then. You’ve met my father.”

Clara’s Tad steps forward to shake Jenny’s hand, not even batting an eye at the conversation between her and his daughter. “And who might that be?”

“I think you guys know him as the Doctor?” Jenny offers, and her Pa and her Dad's eyebrows shoot up.

“I’m guessing Future-Me hasn’t told you that yet,” Clara says with a grin, and her Pa shakes his head. She smiles. "Guess I won't have to, then. But do you two mind sitting down to talk with Jenny?"

"Of course," Her Pa says, leaning forward to press a kiss into his daughter's hair. "Anything for our baby girl."

* * *

There are far more immortals- or variations thereupon- running around the universe than one might originally think. Of Time Lords, there is just the Doctor. Of children of the Bad Wolf, there are three: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, and Rose Tyler. Of immortals made by the cracks in time and the Pandorica, there are Rory Williams and Amy Pond, though it will take a very long time to realize that.

Of these immortals, there are three daughters. The Doctor, long ago, a planet and many companions ago, had a daughter named Jenny, the only proper remaining Time Lady in existence. Amy Pond and Rory Williams gave birth to a daughter they named Melody, whose timeline, like theirs, was not a fixed point or a cycle but rather a severely elongated lifetime.

And for Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones, well-

Jack and Ianto only ever have one child, and she's quite the special girl.

-

Jack wasn’t quite joking when he, long ago, mentioned getting pregnant in a rather fast-paced conversation with John Hart. Under the most specific of circumstances, men of his specific human-Boeshane hybrid can exploit the more hermaphroditic tendencies of their race and create children using their dormant eggs and another man’s sperm, as long as they are cradled within some sort of artificial womb.

So Ianto and Jack’s baby grows in an artificial womb, carried aboard the TARDIS in a side compartment through travels and adventures and Time. For the first (and only) time since Jack's trip to the end of the universe, Jack travels aboard the TARDIS during the length of the "pregnancy," unable to let the baby travel unaccompanied by its parents. Ianto travels with them as well, unwilling to leave husband or child well alone.

And eleven months of travel later, a baby is birthed into Ianto and Jack’s waiting hands. A girl with dark hair and skin glowing gold, she is just like them, with a few tweaks- the ability to age and grow, but an ability that will halt and slow at a time the Bad Wolf deems appropriate. When she dies, she will come back to life just as she was, as a fixed point rather than a regeneration.

Rose explains all of this to them with a smile and eyes that glow the same gold as their baby girl’s skin, the knowledge of a goddess in her voice. She explains what the heart of the TARDIS- and, more specifically, the Bad Wolf, who hums in the back of Rose's mind, who connects her to the TARDIS and to all the decisions that the Bad Wolf made.

She ends her explanation with: "So, what are you going to name her?"

Ianto hasn't yet looked up from the baby girl in his arms. "Clara," he says, "It means bright." Which, Rose has to admit, is quite accurate at the moment.

"Middle name Toshiko," Jack adds, because it's been five thousand years but they haven't forgotten. They're never going to forget.

Rose looks between the two of them, a conversation from a century ago filtering through her mind. "Did you two ever get that vortex manipulator working?"

"Almost," Jack says, "It'll be ready by the time she turns nineteen or so." He glances up at Rose, a knowing smile on his lips. "Perfect age to start traveling, right?"

"I'd have to say so," Rose says with a nod. "Now, if you two don't mind, I'm going to leave you two to spend some time with your daughter and I'm going to go spend time with my husband." She leans in slightly, eyes still glowing a little, and asks: "Do you mind?"

Ianto shakes his head, and Jack smiles at her, so Rose presses a gentle kiss to the soft fuzz on top of Clara's head. "Welcome to the universe, little star," she says, about a thousand years crawling under her skin. She's woefully young compared to Ianto and Jack, right now, but she is still ancient compared to this little baby in front of her.

Then Rose steps back and heads off from the main room to go and tell her silver-haired husband about the birth that just occurred. Despite this current regeneration's grumpy air- so close to her original Doctor's- she knows that the news will make him so, so happy.

Behind her, Ianto carefully passes Clara off to Jack, who cradles her more carefully than he's ever held anything before. "I've never seen anything more beautiful before," Jack says reverently as the glow in his daughter's skin starts to dissipate, little by little.

Ianto looks at his husband holding their daughter, and thinks about how this little family of theirs- immortal, ancient, new, and ever-changing yet ever-fixed- should be totally impossible. There should be no way for this to have come about. Ianto should have died four thousand years ago, Jack should have died at that Satellite, Clara should never have been born. This shouldn't have, by any stretch of logic, have been able to happen.

But he is so, so glad that this  _was_ possible, that their stories won't end, that they got a second chance. They they get all eternity together, a happily-ever-after that sometimes will be hard, sometimes will take effort, but that won't end.

Ianto tucks Clara's blankets in just a little tighter around her feet, where they'd started to slip, and whispers, "Our beautiful impossible girl."

As he leans back up, Jack turns just a bit to press a soft kiss to Ianto's cheek. "Our beautiful impossible family," he adds quietly, awe clear in his voice, and Ianto is so happy to be spending the rest of his life- the rest of eternity- with this man.

**Author's Note:**

> Did that make sense? I sure hope it did. Hope you all liked this, because I had the absolute best time writing it!


End file.
